RAWALPINDI, Oct 30: The Punjab government has decided to withdraw the appointment of supervisory police officers (SPOs) posted at police stations after the move backfired by adversely affecting police working and the chain of command.

In this regard, the SPOs have already been removed from the four districts: Lahore, Gujranwala, Faisalabad and Multan.

The provincial government had appointed SPOs, apparently to redress public complaints against police, in five cities, including Rawalpindi and Gujranwala, on June 9, 2006.

Under the new system, the sub-divisional headquarters of urban areas were abolished, and the ASPs, SPs and DSPs were appointed SPOs at the police stations.

The ASPs, who were recruited in Grade-17, deemed it a disgrace to work as an SPO at the police station, while the SHOs were unhappy, considering that SPOs were interfering in their affairs.

When contacted, a senior police officer, who had been privy to the formulation of Police Order 2002, said there was no proposal of appointing SPOs at police station.

Under the new system, SPOs and SHOs were given salary raise of Rs20,000 and Rs15,000, respectively.